From the ArcaMax Publishing, Arianna Huffington Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/ariannahuffington/s-365936-409578
"Prominent Republicans . . . have been for the first time openly
critical" of their candidate's "floundering campaign."
The "forces of inertia, arrogance and self-denial will probably
conspire to keep the Republican establishment circling the wagons"
around him, but his "yawning credibility gap" will result in "a
spectacular defeat in November."
"Nearly half of those who plan to vote for him in November expect him
to lose."
Someone being tough on John McCain?
Actually, I wrote all of the above about Bob Dole during his 1996
presidential campaign. But it fits John McCain like a glove, right
down to his "shrunken vision for the greatest nation on earth" -- as I
wrote about Dole on Oct. 7, 1996 .
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released last week asked the question,
"Who do you think will win?" The answer: Barack Obama 54; John McCain
30. Obama is unlikely to win in such a landslide, which means that
millions planning to vote for McCain expect him to lose -- as was the
case with Dole.
An already desperate McCain tried to make news last week by comparing
Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter, but McCain should be careful about
forcing people to make comparisons to ill-fated campaigns of the past.
As was the case in '96, we have a Republican nominee who is a war hero
wounded in sacrifice for his country, personable and engaging, with a
long Senate career, who is so out of sync with the times that his
campaign feels stillborn. It's Doleja vu all over again.
As happened with Dole, prominent Republicans are already being openly
critical of McCain's campaign. After McCain's lifeless June 2 speech
in front of the much-panned lime-green backdrop, Bill Kristol said:
"There are lots of Republicans I have talked to who are concerned.
They're not panicked. They're concerned."
And they are right to be. What the GOP is going to learn too late (or,
possibly, never) is that it's not just, as Kristol calls it, a matter
of "presentation." It's a matter of message.
Republicans didn't lose control of Congress in 2006 because, as many
of them -- in deep denial -- continue to believe they just didn't get
their message out there. The message got out there all right. And it
got rejected in November 2006 , just as it should in November 2008 .
Of course, McCain could have taken a different route. After all, once
upon a time, he was a politician who actually was defined by his
willingness to depart from the GOP message. No more. McCain has now
completely abandoned his core principles, cashed in his maverick
chips, and gone all-in with the GOP's right wing.
A man who once summed up why torture should never be an option by
saying, "It's not about who they are, it's about who we are," is now
embracing Bush's "shrunken vision" of America wholesale. A man who
saved his political career by making campaign finance reform his
signature issue, has done a 180 turn and loaded his campaign up with
lobbyists.
According to a just-released Pew poll, when voters were asked to
describe McCain, "maverick" didn't make the list. Nor did "reformer"
or "independent." The most frequent word was: "old."
But McCain's problem isn't that he's too old -- it's that his ideas
are too old. In fact, they can be traced back to the very first days
of the Bush administration. He's got a 2003 Iraq strategy, a 2001 view
of the economy, and a take on gay marriage that is straight out of the
Dark Ages.
The question facing voters this year is: Do you want a president who
will take us into the future or do you want a president who's mired in
the past? As Tommy Schlamme who, among many other great shows,
executive-produced "The West Wing," told me: "Watching McCain's and
Obama's speeches back-to-back the other night was like going from
black-and-white TV to high-def."
So we are left with the sorry spectacle of a low-def candidate, one
who has abandoned that which made him a real leader in the first
place, now reduced to dutifully repeating the talking points of an
administration the public is turning away from more and more every
day. When he called last week's Supreme Court decision affirming the
right of Guantanamo prisoners to challenge their detention in U.S.
courts "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country," he
was tossing red meat to the right and parroting something he can't
possibly believe. Upholding the constitutional right to habeas corpus
ranks up there with Dred Scott or Plessy v. Ferguson, Senator? Really?
It's going to be a long, hot summer for McCain surrogates. What are
they going to say? I got a taste last week when I was on Larry King
with GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. She seemed to think the
major issue Republicans could win running on was earmarks: "(McCain)
has been with us, the House conservatives, on the issue of earmarks,"
she said. "Economic issues are the number one issues. And I do believe
that those play to his strengths."
I'm sure the Obama campaign hopes the congresswoman and McCain truly
believe that.
On the other hand, what else have they got? Iraq? Skyrocketing gas
prices? Pink slips and foreclosures? When a campaign's game plan comes
down to demonizing your opponent's wife, I'd say the big-ideas needle
is pointing to "Empty."
Kristol and other Republican poobahs may want to chalk up their
party's woes to a glitch in "presentation" or to the media. But saying
it won't make it true.
America has received the GOP's message loud and clear. And if John
McCain continues to embrace it, he's going to meet the same fate as
Bob Dole. On the bright side, I'm sure those Viagra commercials paid
pretty well.
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Arianna Huffington's e-mail address is arianna@huffingtonpost.com.